I will never be completely sure of the day when we all decided to grow up and abandon the things that made us happy for the things that make other people happy. The more I think about it, the more sure I am that somewhere along the line we all forgot why we do the things we do. We just do them because it would take too much independent thought to change our ways.

We smiled when we were together because it was what we were taught. It’s funny, you always think you’re the only one pretending until you peel back everyone else’s mask and realize how many broken people there are. For a while, we thought it was the person that was crazy, but it isn’t. It’s the society.

Each of us is forced into the same tiny mold that doesn’t fit anyone perfectly, but it’s supposed to. We’re supposed to have perfect bodies, flawless faces, grades that aren’t just one hundred, but over that, amazing friends, sleep, love, sports, clubs, extra-curricular, community service and the whole world balanced in equilibrium. It has been said that impossible doesn’t exist. Live in this world, and you’ll find it lingering everywhere.

This realization that everything is impossible has a different effect on everyone. For most people, it has them pulling on the threads of the fragile knit holding everything together. But, we all know that when you pull on a thread just a bit that the whole thing comes undone. Others shrink back and crawl into their cages of bones, so deep that they can never be found again. Some lie, and by some, I mean all of us. The truth is, we’re all self destructive and falling down the same hole in different ways.

You can’t hide who you are. I thought I could for a long time. I thought that you glue on a mask and everything goes away. You act. You play your part. Wrong—it’s all wrong. No matter how many lies you tell, games you play and people you fool, nothing will cure the truth.